Ribbon guiding and inking roller for printing machines



March 24, 1959 .1.v. ROMANO RIBBON GUIDING AND INKING ROLLER FOR PRINTING MACHINES F'iled July 24, 1956 1 N VENTOR JOSEPH ROMANO ATTORNEY RIBBON GUIDING AND INKING ROLLER FOR PRINTING MACHINES Joseph'VQRomano, Clifton, NJ., assignor of forty-nine one-hundredths to Fisher-Stevens, Inc., a corporation of New Jersey yApplication July 24, 1956, Serial No. 599,725 7 Claims. (Cl. 101-336) This invention relates to a guiding and inking roller for a continuously advancing inked printing ribbon and is particularly concerned with a ribbon guide having a freely rotating soft absorbent surface contacting the printing ribbon.

Various types of printing machines have been developed that use an inked ribbon which is alternately reeled from one storage spool to another past an intermediate printing position. It is generally necessary to have ribbon guides positioned between the reels and each side of the printing station.

Recent developments have been toward completely automatic printing machines and increased speed of operation. This in turn reduces the life of the moving ribbons due to increased frictional wear on the ribbon material and the loss of ink from the ribbon.

A typical type of printing machine that has been developed for fast and automatic operation is the Addressograph machine which automatically feeds envelopes and a series of diierent address plates from a rack to the printing station and prints the different addresses onto individual envelopes.

The Addressograp machines are provided with ribbon guides on both sides of the printing station and spaced a short distance from the respective storage spools. These guides are presently stationary cylindrical bars whose lengths correspond approximately to the width of the ribbon and are provided at both ends with stop mem- -bers to insure an accurate path of travel for the ribbon between the storage spools and through the printing station.

The ribbons in these fast moving machines must be replaced often, usually on a daily basis, because the frictional contact wears the ribbons and the printing operation removes the ink. There is considerable fric tion at the ribbon guides as Well as at other points of the ribbon path. Moreover, the stationary guide bars remove ink from the ribbon, especially when the ribbon is freshly saturated with ink. This not only reduces the ink available at the printing station but also requires frequent cleaning of the ribbon guides and adjacent parts of the machine where the ink thus removed tends to accumulate.

It has been suggested that the metal guide bars be rotatable instead of stationary but this has not been adopted on present machines apparently because it does not appreciably improve the performance of the ribbons or eliminate the problem caused by the removal of ink from the ribbons as they move in contact with the guide surfaces.

It will be appreciated that after the installation of one of these printing machines, the frequent replacement of ribbons is a major cost ot operation from several aspects, i.e., cost of ribbon, labor for replacement, and time lost in eective operation of the machine. Moreover, replacement of inked ribbons is a dirty and un desirable task.

It is an object of this invention to provide a ribbon arent O guide for movableribbon printing machines that will greatly increase the average life of ribbons used in the machine.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a ribbon guide that minimizes accumulations `of ink on the parts of the machine adjacent the path of the ribbon in its movement past the printing station.

It is also an object of this invention to provide aI ribbon guide that will insure more ecient printing use of the available ink on the ribbon.

It is another object of this invention to provide a rotatable ribbon guide that presents a soft ink-absorbent surface to the advancing ribbon so that ink taken up from the ribbon during the initial stages of use of a new ribbon is returned thereto and utilized to prolong thek useful life of the ribbon.

With these and other objects in view, the nature of which will be more apparent as the description proceeds,

the invention will be more fully understood by referencev to the drawings, the accompanying detailed description and the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective plan view of the ribbon mech illustrated is embodied in ribbon guides mounted on a` conventional Addressograph printing machine, the guides being positioned intermediate the storage spools on both sides of the printing station.

The conventional ribbon arrangement shown in Fig. 1 includes a removable spool 6, a permanent spool 7, and a printing ribbon 8 extending between the spools and through printing station 9. As shown here the ribbon 84 is wound on the removable spool 6 and secured at one end to the permanent spool 7 in the condition existing after a new ribbon has been inserted. Thereafter, dur# ing operation of the machine, the ribbon will be wound alternately from one spool to the other. Thus much of Located on both sides of.

the machine is conventional. the printing station 9 near the respective spools 6 and 7 at conventional positions are the novel ribbon guides 11, 11 of my invention. Since both guides are the same, only one need be described in detail.

As shown in more detail in Figs. 2 and 3, each guide includes a U-shaped base member 12 in which is securelyl mounted a slip holding bar 13 extending through the two vertical end portions 14 and 16 of the base member.' Threaded into end portion 14 in alignment with bar 1'3 is a hollow threaded rod 17 so that the bar 13 extends loosely into the hollow rod. A threaded opening 18 extends `downwardly into end portion 16 to the passage for the slip bar 13. An Allen nut 19 is positioned in the opening to secure the slip bar tightly in place. Rotatably mounted on the slip bar 13 is an Oilite 4bearing comprising an outer sleeve 21, end rollers 22 and a central perforated loosely positioned sleeve member 23. Snugly mounted over the bearing roll is a series of felt rolls 24 which are not secured to the hearing sleeve 21 but generally rotate therewith because the bearing sleeve and the associated end rollers 22 are mounted to rotate freely on the slip bar 13.

The vertical end portions 14 and 16 of the base mem-V ber 12 serve to provide guides for the ribbon at the opposite ends of the felt covered roller assembly.'v The basen: member 12, in addition to providing a support for the.:

roller assembly, serves to minimize any tendency for ink Patented Mar, 24, 1959` thrown off 'or otherwise released from the ribbon to drop upon the floor -or "underparts of the printing machine. This comes about because the intermediate portion of the base member extends beneath the roller and forms an extended collecting 'surface for ink released from the ribbon or the roller assembly. As shown more particularly in Fig. 2, the roller is preferably mounted so that the felt covered roller surface is approximately ush with one edge 25 of the intermediate portion of the base member 12, this being the edge closest to the adjacent ribbon spool in the printing machine assembly. In the-embodiment shown, this involves mounting the slip bar somewhat eccentrically or to one side of the centers of the upstanding end portions 14 and 16. In this way, the ribbon is permitted to pass freely over the roller to the adjacent spool without contacting the intermediate portion of the base member 12, while at the same time assuring a considerable width to such intermediate portion and in that way increasing its efficiency -in guarding the lower parts of the machine against deposits of ink thereon.

As will -be noted `from Fig. l the threaded rod 17 of each ribbon guide is detachably mounted in the respective holders 26 and secured thereto by nuts 27. Thus these units are readily detached from the machine as a whole by taking off nuts 27. However, if it is desired to replace the felt rolls 22 this can be done while the main unit is secured to the machine Iby loosening the Allen nut t9 which then allows the slip holding bar 13 to be removed so that the Oilite bearing sleeve 21, the associated bearings and the `felt rolls 24 may be taken out. will be realized that the holders 26 are conventional on the Addressograph for the conventional ribbon guide so that it is quite easy to substitute the ribbon guides of my invention for the conventional guides.

During operation of the machine with my ribbon guide it has been found that in the beginning ink will be transferred from the ribbon to the felt rolls until they become soaked therewith and thereafter there is a reversible interchange of ink between the felt rolls and the ribbon so that the ink does not have a tendency to pile up and ben come messy as it does with the conventional metal guide bars heretofore used. ln order to conserve ink on the ribbon it has been found desirable in fact to manually apply enough ink to the felt rolls so that they will lbe soaked with ink without absorbing ink originally from the inked ribbon.

Although I have shown a series of six small felt rolls forming the contacting surface for the ribbon it will be realized that this could be a single elongated roll or any number of small rolls to give the proper length corresponding to the width of the ribbon. Furthermore, I have used felt material which was readily available and works very well but other similar soft and absorbing materials can tbe used and are considered within the scope of this invention.

It will be appreciated that this invention is not to be limited to the particular mechanical details disclosed herein but is intended to include a movable-ri-bbon guide that is freely rotatable and presents a soft and absorbing surface to the ribbon.

I claim:

l. In a printing machine having an inked ribbon movable along a path through a printing station, the combination of a ribbon guide unit comprising a base member, a slip holding bar carried by said base member and removably mounted thereon perpendicular to the length and parallel to the width of said ribbon, bearing means mounted on and freely rotatable about said slip holding bar, a ribbon supporting member mounted on said bearing means and freely rotatable therewith, said supporting member presenting a surface portion formed of a soft and ink-absorbent material, said ribbon guide being positioned relative to said ribbon so that said ribbon contacts said supporting member, and said unit including spaced guide members mounted on said base member so as to Furthermore, it

be generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of and extending laterally from said slip holding bar to maintain the position of said ribbon`in said path while engaged with said surface portion.

2. A printing machine as claimed in claim l wherein said surface portion of said rotatable supporting member is formed of felt.

3. A unitary ribbon guide for a printing machine vhaving an inked ribbon movable along a path through a printing station comprising in combination a roller supporting member adapted to be mounted on the printing machine perpendicular to the length and parallel to the width of said ribbon, upwardly extending guide members carried by said roller supporting member adjacent the opposite ends thereof, a slip holding bar supported by said guide members in a plane above 'said supporting member, a roller assembly including bearing means mounted on and freely rotatable about said slip holding bar, and a sleeve mounted on said bearing means and :freely rotatable therewith, said sleeve having alength substantially equal to the length of the space between said guide members and presenting a surface portion formed of a soft and ink-absorbent material, said upwardly extending guide members being operative to maintain the ribbon in said path while engaged with said ink-absorbent material.

4. A ribbon guide as claimed in claim 3 wherein said roller supporting member is horizontally arranged on the printing machine and presents an extended surface laterally of the length thereof at least as wide as the 'diameter o said roller whereby to shield parts of the printing machine disposed beneath said roller from dripping of ink from the inked ribbon where it passes over said roller.

5. ln a printing machine having an inked ribbon 'mOvable along a substantially straight horizontal path through a printing station, a ribbon guide unit comprising a roller located below auch ribbon in ribbon supporting relation at a point in said path and provided with an exterior surface formed vof a soft material capable of absorbing ink from said ribbon and having a length such as to enable it to support the width of said ribbon, means supporting said roller for free rotatable movement to enable said roller to be readily rotated by the advancing roller engaging ribbon portion, said supporting means being constructed and arranged to enable the ribbon in said path to move .freely to and past said roller, and stationary guide members at the ends of such exterior surface of said roller and operative to maintain the ribbon in said 'path during its engagement with such surface, said guide members being mounted on said roller supporting means and extending upwardly therefrom a substantial distance beyond the periphery of said roller.

6. A printing machine as claimed in claim 5 wherein said guide members are mounted on said roller supporting means and are provided with opposed guiding surfaces disposed generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of and extending laterally with respect to said ribbon supporting roller upwardly from the ribbon engaged surface portion of such roller and positioned above the portions of said supporting means which extend across said path 0f ribbon movement, the width of such guiding surfaces being as great as the outside diameter of said exterior surface of said roller.

7. In a printing machine having an inked ribbon movable along a path through a printing station, a ribbon guide unit comprising a U-shaped member, a roller located between the legs of said member and in ribbonsupporting relation at a point in said path, said roller being provided with an exterior surface formed of a soft material capable of absorbing inl; from said ribbon and having a length substantially equal to the length of the space between the legs of said member and such as to enable it to support the width of said ribbon, and means supporting said roller on the legs of said member for free rotational movement to enable said roller to be readily rotated by the advancing roller engaging ribbon portion, said legs being provided with opposed guiding surfaces projecting outwardly beyond said roller and operative to maintain the ribbon in said path during its engagement with such roller surface.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Diss Aug. 30, 1892 Sargent et a1. Oct. 20, 1914 Donegan Oct. 15, 1918 

